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- Ελληνικά
Filoxenia Conference Centre
It is a great pleasure to participate in such an important conference, which touches on one of the most important issues that concerns the entire planet, the entire humanity: Climate change, all the more so when it is combined with tourism, which you all know very well its importance in the economy and development of our country.
So, I am here as an indication of our interest both in climate change and, of course, in how it affects our country's tourism product.
To the question of whether climate change is a threat to tourism, it is certainly a threat.
It is a huge challenge for tourism, but at the same time I strongly believe that those countries that will turn climate change and its challenges into an opportunity are the ones that will benefit in tourism and in many other areas.
We are late and we have to admit it. We are late in particular as countries of the region and I insist on the issue of countries of the region. I will refer next to the initiative taken by the previous government, a very good initiative.
No country alone can deal with the threats of climate change. Anyone who thinks that a country will entrench itself and deal with the threats of climate change on its own, you can be sure that it will fail. It is a message that we have conveyed to neighbouring states and I am pleased with the response that there has been. There was a related regional meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, at the last COP meeting. There is a new meeting planned in the United Arab Emirates in November, which I will attend. It is very difficult for the states in the region to sit around a table to discuss security issues, defence issues, hard policy issues. But it is much easier to find issues such as climate change, something that threatens us all, so that we can start working together, working with all the states and through this cooperation we can see the benefits that can come out of it. This will lead us to cooperation on other issues.
I would like to warmly congratulate the Deputy Ministry of Tourism and the Cyprus Sustainable Tourism Association for what is admittedly an excellent initiative. I would also like to thank the speakers and all those present, which is a clear indication of the recognition of the importance of the issue.
Seeing and assessing the dramatic consequences, the first thing we must do is to recognise the dramatic nature of the issue of climate change internationally. Particularly in our region, which is particularly hard hit, we conclude that if we are to remain safe and prosperous, both as human beings and as a society in general, we must adopt in a timely manner - albeit belatedly, I repeat - the appropriate policies and measures to address, and if possible mitigate, those arising from climate change.
And climate change is a phenomenon that affects horizontally all issues of concern to a Government.
And climate change is a phenomenon that affects horizontally all issues of concern to a Government. For example, one of the biggest problems we face as a country today is immigration. As we speak about 7% of the people living in our country are asylum seekers. Imagine if climate change is not addressed what will happen in all these countries. And I am referring in particular to the countries of Africa, where such conditions will be created that for the inhabitants there it will simply not be possible for them to live in their countries. So, the first thing they will do to survive will be to leave their countries. And by leaving their countries, you can see what will happen with migration. It is for this reason that in the debates on Migration especially in Brussels we insist that we cannot deal with it by giving benefits, money to all these people, but we have to deal with the root causes, what we call the root causes of the migration phenomenon. And the most basic problem, one of the most basic problems that causes migration is also the phenomena that result from not addressing the effects of climate change.
It is precisely in this context, from this perspective, that the design and implementation of a horizontal strategy to address climate change and protect the environment, which involves all Ministries, is a top priority for all Governments.
It is precisely in this context, from this perspective, that the design and implementation of a horizontal strategy to address climate change and protect the environment, which involves all Ministries, is a top priority for all Governments. By extension, the adoption and implementation of the principles of sustainability must now characterize the country's development model.
One of our first actions in this direction was to increase energy production from alternative sources. Indicative are the Decisions of the Cabinet of Ministers to amend the "Plan for Production of Electricity from Renewable Energy Sources for Private Consumption". With these measures, together with today's decisions to be announced after the Cabinet meeting, we are further strengthening this effort. It is something that will significantly help both to reduce the cost of electricity and to increase the share of Renewable Energy Sources in our country's energy balance.
At the same time, the Government is working on measures to reduce air pollution produced by the movement of large numbers of vehicles and traffic congestion. You know that this is one of the most serious problems we all face in our daily lives. In this context we are taking a number of actions, for example, the use of public transport, following the recent decision to provide free bus transport in the centre of Nicosia. A measure which, when it was presented to the Council of Ministers, I personally had my doubts whether it would succeed. We do not have the culture as a people. First we have to build the culture for using public transport. But [I FIND] to my great surprise, despite the early days - although some people invoked it ironically - that today all the buses are full. We are already discussing how to have more buses for this line, how to extend it to Limassol and then to all the cities of free Cyprus. So, we gave the choice to the citizens, this is our responsibility as a government and the citizens responded immediately to this offer.
An important pillar of our actions, it is an indication of how high the issue is at EU level, is still the Recovery and Resilience Plan and in particular the second policy pillar, which includes actions to help us to move faster towards a green economy and environmental sustainability. And because I see a lot of entrepreneurs here, particularly in the tourism sector, I know that there is an initial reaction to the need to move to a green transition because of the cost. I fully understand that, but we have to look at the long-term benefits because in the long run the benefits that will accrue, and the economic benefits, will clearly be more significant.
This second axis is also the most important in terms of the overall contribution of the Plan to the climate goals. It covers 42% of the total budget of the Recovery Plan and includes actions with a total value of more than €500 million.
With regard to the tourism sector in particular, it should be noted that the National Tourism Strategy, as it is continuously updated by the Ministry of Tourism, will include specific actions to mitigate the effects of climate change especially in the tourism sector, which in the case of Cyprus we all understand the importance for the economy and the development of our country.
In this context, the Government continues to cooperate at regional and international level, so that through synergies we can achieve our goals, since no country can deal with the effects of climate change on its own. It was in this context that, on Cyprus' initiative, an Action Plan was prepared by the scientific community to address climate change in the Eastern Mediterranean region and the wider Middle East. An ambitious action plan that, in cooperation with neighbouring countries, we have slowly started to implement. When I was recently in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, I had a meeting with technocrats working on this issue, so that they could help us in particular in formulating the action plans. We all know, we can all agree on the impacts of climate change, but the most important thing is the action plans to address the phenomenon and of course the implementation of those action plans.
Our objective is also, and a key condition for achieving our objectives, to encourage as much as possible actions to raise awareness of climate change among the population.
And an excellent job is being done by Environment Commissioner Maria Panagiotou from her first day in office. We have plans to extend these programmes to schools, to our camps and wherever else we can reach out to the Cypriot people.
I want to tell you, as an experience also from the election campaign during which I had the opportunity to talk to a lot of people, and it's something that we should be concerned about: the issue of the environment, of the impact of climate change, was almost never an issue in the conversations I had with people in their 40s and above.
But in the meetings I had with young people up to the age of 25, the issue of the environment, the issue of climate change was, without any exaggeration, their number one concern. It is something that I think we should be concerned about.
So, our actions should aim to reach older people, my age, so that they become aware and understand the impact of this phenomenon.
Our island, Cyprus, was lucky enough to be endowed with an excellent climate, which also helps a lot in attracting tourism. It is one of the comparative advantages and characteristics of our country's tourism product, which is threatened by the effects of climate change. So, immediately here is the answer as to whether tourism is affected. Of course it is.
Because of the important factor of the tourism industry in the economy of our country, I believe that, yes, climate change is a threat that we have to be concerned about to the maximum extent possible and we have to be proactive, both in planning and in practice, so that we can mitigate the effects that we already have to deal with.
It is for this reason that today's conference is very important. Again, I want to congratulate the organizers, those who had the idea to make it happen. And the most important thing for us, as the executive, is the findings, the results of the discussions that will follow.
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